Survey Says . . . Public Safety, Education, Transportation

Correction: the survey summary as originally posted contained an error in calculations on the chart and graph of per capita respondents by zip code on pages 14 and 15. The information has now been corrected.

Last
Wednesday we closed our online, non-scientific survey of residents about the
2013-2014 City budget. We’ve spent the last few days compiling the results into
a summary presentation, which you can view here.

The
survey asked 19 questions regarding priorities for city spending, what
residents value most about their neighborhoods and how they feel about city
services.

The results show that people want to be safe, they
want good schools and they want to be able to get around town in a variety of
ways. Respondents
gave public safety, public schools and transportation the highest ranks when
asked to order the “most important” local government services and, separately,
the priorities “local government should focus on.”

Slightly more than half of survey participants
believed the City was “responsive” (26.6%) or “becoming more responsive”
(25.8%) to the needs of Seattle’s most vulnerable residents.

Here
is a graphic that highlights some of the words survey participants used in
writing what they liked most about their neighborhood. The larger the word in
the graphic, the more often it was used:

The chart below shows residents’ basic satisfaction
levels with city government services:

This survey gives us another window into what
matters most to the residents of Seattle. More than 1,000 Seattle residents responded
to the non-scientific survey, which was available online and promoted via
blogs, newsletters and handouts at community events around the city. The
Council also received hundreds of e-mails and phone calls about the budget and
heard hours of testimony at public hearings.

The
Council will vote on its amendments to the Mayor’s budget proposal later this
week.